MIAMI — First off, as I publish tonight's game thread, there is news (and some very upsetting photos) coming out of Boston, where there apparently were a pair of explosions near the marathon finish line, seriously injuring many people. A baseball game in Miami seems pretty insignificant at the moment, but this is a baseball blog, so we'll proceed with the news of the day from the Nationals.

Two starters are not in Davey Johnson's lineup for this series opener against the Marlins: Danny Espinosa and Adam LaRoche. Espinosa took a pitch off his right wrist yesterday, so that's not a huge surprise. (Steve Lombardozzi will start at second base in his place.) Not sure yet whether LaRoche's absence has to do with the bad back that sidelined him last weekend in Cincinnati, or whether this has to do with his .147 batting average to begin the season. In either case, Tyler Moore gets his first start of the year at first base.

The Marlins have their own big-name player sidelined tonight: Giancarlo Stanton continues to be hampered by a bad shoulder, so Miami's only true offensive threat will be on the bench. That should make things considerably easier for Jordan Zimmermann, who will be looking to get the Nationals back on track after their weekend sweep at the hands of the Braves.

It's Jackie Robinson Day around MLB, and every player on the field for every team will be wearing No. 42 in his honor. Given the events unfolding in Boston, now seems an appropriate time to remind everyone how much the sports world unites us all, no matter our individual backgrounds.

A few thoughts before we start the Marlins series:A caller to the pre-game radio show on Sunday asked about Zimm’s throwing. Dave and Charlie were full of happiness and assurance that Zimm wasn’t going anywhere, and it was all about the shoulder. Post-game, cheery Phil Wood kept all the focus on the shoulder, and said the problem Friday night was that Espi got to the bag too late—total nonsense. I have heard no commentary on the very real possibility that the problem is in Zimm’s head and appears to be getting worse. I hate the thought of Zimm going through the yips, but it looks like that may be where we’re headed.I was in 209 for the Friday night debacle. There were a bunch of Atlanta drunks in the first row. They were super-blitzed and turned to taunt us when Atlanta did big things. It was very unpleasant. I have attended victorious Nats games at Turner Field and never taunted anyone. We used to think of Southern manners. But, with declining standards of fan behavior across the country, some people want to imitate Philly fans now.The Nats organization spends a lot of its time congratulating itself on drafting players, developing them, and on being super-deep at every position on the field—including of course our legendary bench. After what Atlanta just showed us, the Nats PR team might want to boast a little less in the future.Every manager in baseball will ensure the DJ quote “Nationals: World Series or Bust” is the last thing his players see before they take the field against us. Saying this was a huge mistake.I’m not panicking about the season, but I do wonder if we’ve got enough guys who have that demonic determination to win. All costs, no prisoners, no alternatives. We have some of these guys. Whether we have enough of them will determine what happens to the Nats this season.

LaRoche got his hand run into by a runner yesterday on an offline throw by Zimm, if I recall, so they could be giving him a day off as a precautionary measure for that.Yeah, the news out of Boston makes it hard to be too worried about anything related to the team today.

"Be interesting to see if T-Mo and Lombo provide an offensive spark…."I suspect Lombo will give the Nats an offensive lift out of the 7-hole. And TyMo needs the reps. I think he's a guy who needs to play everyday to stay sharp. I had thought they might send him down to Syracuse to work on his defense and improve his approach at the plate. Owings seems to fit the profile of a bench guy better than TyMo, anyway.And Skole will be playing every day (when he comes off the DL), learning both 3rd base and 1st base, while TyMo languishes on the bench. When ALR leaves in 2 years, Skole will have 2 years of honing his skill set at 1st base while TyMo will have a collection of pine splinters to offer as his resume for that 1st base job.

About the ATL fans– remember the wild card game? That is who you are dealing with. It did not used to be that way with their fans. Even ten years ago their fans would never have trashed their field. New breed? Please, Nats fans, can we not let that happen here?

"Puts losing a couple of baseball games in perspective."Three killed, at first report. Two explosions, about 40 seconds apart. It's Patriot's Day up there. No news, as yet, on the cause of the explosions. The blast reportedly went off at the finish line. I don't believe in coincidences, and that's about 3 too many for me.

"I have heard no commentary on the very real possibility that the problem is in Zimm’s head and appears to be getting worse. I hate the thought of Zimm going through the yips, but it looks like that may be where we’re headed."I think the dude spent a season throwing the ball specifically to accommodate an injury, and now is having to shake that off…but, we'll see…

"I don't believe in coincidences, and that's about 3 too many for me."I would be almost as shocked to learn that Boston was an accident as I am that it happened in the first place. Really hope the casualty list is minimal .

Teach: I would be disappointed in a professional commentator who wanted to bang any. "Mental/head issues" drums after two weeks of a player coming off an injury that forced him into an unnatural throwing motion for most of the previous season. That is the purview of we, who post semi-anonymously, on blogs… Zim might have issues, but I'd certainly give him several more weeks to find his fielding stroke…

Senseless acts of violence carried out by chicken sh– terrorists that spew hatred and live for their hatred of Americans, but yet they will live in our country.I just saw a video. It's bad. Blood and body parts.

I have been cooped up in my studio for hours, didn't even know there was news in Boston til I saw the word here. Very upsetting. Could have been the baseball game, might have been way more casualties. I don't know how you protect a big event that is all over town like a marathon. We have them here all the time. Prayers out to the victims & families.

Ditto — a good reminder to us that this baseball thing is a _game_.Which is why I try to follow the advice of: get happy/high when they win, but not to get cranky/low when they lose. (It sure helps one live longer!)

Even if Moore and Lombo don't do anything great, nothing great was being done anyway. Although, I must say, I am pleased at Espinosa striking the ball. He is at least giving it a chance this year. Zimmerman should sit out many games also. We need to give the lineup a shot. We need bats! It would also be nice to have someone who can throw from third to first and not from third into the stands. Just another night at the park.

The video from the Boston Glove is absolutely terrifying, especially when the 2nd bomb went off. If you have never lived through a city bombed in a war, that is what it is like–devastating, mentally, even if you are not injured.

NatsLady said…If you have never lived through a city bombed in a war, that is what it is like–devastating, mentally, even if you are not injured. My mother grew up in Paris during WW II. To this day, the sound of ambulance, police, or fire sirens gives her the willies.And that's all I'm going to say about bombings here, because I'll eventually write something Mark is forced to delete.

Condolences to the families. Horrible day. Ok, this is my last comment on this topic, but I can't resist. MLB Now (with Brian K and Harold R, moderated by Kristina A) did a piece on Jason Heyward's hustle today and showed an overhead view of Zim's throwing error on Friday night that I hadn't seen before. It's absolutely clear as day that any commentator who said Zim had no chance to get the runner at first or who said that Espi is to blame for the error was absolutely dead wrong. The play is at minute 18 of the show if you happened to record it. When Zim's throw was about halfway to second base. Heyward is maybe 8 feet from the base. Danny is closer to the base, and on a line to where a good throw would end up. The batter is literally only halfway to first at that moment. When the ball arrives at second, Heyward and Danny are both already there. Even on a good throw with Espi in perfect position, Heyward would have been safe. (At least only one run would have scored.) At that moment, the batter was at least four to six steps from first. It was a long throw, yes, but if Zim had a major league arm, he could have thrown out the batter and we would have won that ball game. Case closed.

Top of the first. 4-0. I don't believe this lead is anywhere big enough for the Nats to hold. LaRoche did well…oh, that was Moore. What can you say about Zim, huh? Hey ma, look what I did!!!! Yea, go nats.

Steve J, Alexandria said… If JZim ever throws a no no, maybe its tonight!! April 15, 2013 7:33 PM __________________________________Thank you Mark! If Stevie J can post like this or be constructively critical then I say welcome. I do like his post above.

a little luck, a little skill . . . nice combination- Stanton not playing: he already has three home runs off of JZ. Nice break for us.- LaBlanc: has an ERA of 0.00 this year after the first inning — nice to jump on him in the first today- Nats: hit the ball sharply, but on the ground in the first inning — nice that all those grounders went through for hitsI feel good tonight — and JZ is dealing

NatsNut said… Tyler owes LaRoche a nice steak dinner. April 15, 2013 7:55 PM ________________________________TyMo needed that and deserved it. This is what should have been done earlier against the lefty pitching.

"this is starting to feel as if we're coming home and kicking the dog after being bullied by the boss all day at work."I was just thinking of a Far Side cartoon: two huge cowboys drinking at the bar with a very much smaller cowboy sitting next to them. Drunk at the end of the bar yelling at the small guy, "You! Yeah, I'm talkin to you!"

Hi, everybody. So glad all of the Nats are doing well tonight. An emotional afternoon and evening here. One our best friends' girlfriend ran the Boston Marathon today. Her mom, brother, daughters were all up to cheer her on. Her brother was waiting at the finish line for her, across the street from the hotel when one of the bombs went off. He saw the explosion, but thankfully didn't get hurt, neither did our runner friend Jill. Nothing but dumb luck, or fate. Our friend got a call from his girlfriend right after it happened, and she was understandably a bit of a basket case. Folks, hug a loved one tonight. Prayers for all of the victims, and their families, and for the USA.GYFNG!!!

NatsJack in Florida said… We're not getting to DC till Saturday._________________________________________If you aren't doing anything Saturday around DC, you should come to the Big Train Redskins Celebrity softball game in Bethesda.

Sec. 3, My Untucked Sofa said… I remember a time not so long ago Zim would have lain out and caught that little looper. Sigh. He was better at that than anybody I ever saw, in those days. ________________________________No doubt about it. He just looks off, uncomfortable, and a little doughy. I'm sure with the shoulder he couldn't do his normal off-season workouts either but at least offensively maybe tonight is the start of something.

Gonat, indeed. Sec 2 here was just asking why for the love of Doubleday Zim was still in this game. "Two words: Wally Pipp." I said. "After all these years, all baseball players know that name. There's a reason for that."

I don't care if it's 22-3, I still want to see us play good baseball. Doesn't sound like we are at the moment.… because there's some kid in the stands who's seeing us play for the first time. Oh wait, my bad. There's nobody in the stands.